Self-similarity and wavelet forms for the compression of still image and video data
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Abstract
This thesis is concerned with the methods used to reduce the data volume required to represent
still images and video sequences. The number of disparate still image and video
coding methods increases almost daily. Recently, two new strategies have emerged and
have stimulated widespread research. These are the fractal method and the wavelet transform.
In this thesis, it will be argued that the two methods share a common principle: that
of self-similarity. The two will be related concretely via an image coding algorithm which
combines the two, normally disparate, strategies.
The wavelet transform is an orientation selective transform. It will be shown that the
selectivity of the conventional transform is not sufficient to allow exploitation of self-similarity
while keeping computational cost low. To address this, a new wavelet transform
is presented which allows for greater orientation selectivity, while maintaining the
orthogonality and data volume of the conventional wavelet transform. Many designs for
vector quantizers have been published recently and another is added to the gamut by this
work. The tree structured vector quantizer presented here is on-line and self structuring,
requiring no distinct training phase. Combining these into a still image data compression
system produces results which are among the best that have been published to date.
An extension of the two dimensional wavelet transform to encompass the time dimension
is straightforward and this work attempts to extrapolate some of its properties into three
dimensions. The vector quantizer is then applied to three dimensional image data to
produce a video coding system which, while not optimal, produces very encouraging
results